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Origins (The Story of Maethor)
Origins is the story of the Toa Torbur. It takes place on the island Torbur Nui after Matoro used the Mask of Life to revive Mata Nui. This story also takes place in the Maethorneth Alternate Universe in which several BIONICLE elements have been changed. Characters (In order of appearance) * Tior * Maethor * Aloro * Colan * Kila The Story Chapter 1: Ice Torbur Nui was practically an island paradise. Rarely were the Matoran who made the island their abode disturbed or threatened in any way. Most of them went peacefully about their daily tasks of farming, sculpting, studying and other such chores as were deemed fit by the Matoran. No Turaga resided on Torbur Nui and the Matoran chose leaders of the village as they saw fit. Methods of choosing varied from village to village but this method of leadership never seemed to cause problems. Neither were there any Toa, so defense of the villages was operated by the Matoran themselves. Rarely was such a defense needed however, as threats were virtually non-existent. It was on this island in the northernmost village, Ko-Koro as it was named by the island’s denizens, there happened to be a disturbance. It was not among the usual landslides or blizzards the Ko-Matoran expected on a daily basis, it was rather a direct attack on the village. The sky was filled with rolling clouds, appearing as puffs of smoke. It would have been a beautiful sight had the clouds not been obscuring the sun’s golden rays. As a result, the sky was dark and looked as if, at any moment, a torrential downpour might burst forth from the clouds. The Ko-Matoran were used to blizzards and the like so a storm as the clouds seemed ready to produce was nothing to concern themselves over, or so they thought. A young Matoran named Tior was standing at the village gates on guard duty. He had only recently joined the Village Guard and was standing at his post with his superior officer, Maethor. Maethor had aspired for some time to become Captain of the Guard, however the Captain was always chosen by the leader of the village, and every Matoran considered Maethor to be a poor choice for Captain. He still held on to a shred of hope that he might someday be able to lead the Village Guard but it was little more than a hope. It was on this bleak day that the first real disturbance on Torbur Nui occurred. It was almost unnoticeable but Tior saw what appeared to be a black cloud, moving along the ground at very high speed. Tior panicked; Of course, first big thing to EVER happen on this island happens on my first day of guard duty. “Maethor,” Tior began, “do you see that?” Maethor strained his eyes until he too could see the coming cloud. “Sound the alarm!” he shouted and both he and Tior ran back inside the gate, not before Maethor retrieved his bow and arrows though. Tior was one of the fastest Matoran in the village and he sprinted straight for the warning bell. Maethor dashed up the steps of the village wall and fitted an arrow to his bow-string, ready for whatever might come. Tior continued to ring the warning bell for several minutes as the cloud came ever closer. After the first few rings of the bell, Aloro, the current Captain of the Guard emerged from his hut, with his blade in his hand, prepared to fend off an attack. Maethor tried his best to keep his animosity toward Aloro under control. Aloro was best in the village at nearly everything and Maethor hated him for it. The cloud came ever closer with each second and Aloro trotted up the steps to the top of the wall. At the top of the village gate, there was a telescope, which the Ko-Matoran used to perceive any potential threats or friends from a great distance. It hadn’t been used in over a thousand years however. Aloro looked through the rusty piece of equipment, barely able to see anything through the eyepiece. What he did see, though, was appalling. Swarms of spherical creatures were rolling toward the village at what appeared to be top speed, all of them a sickly shade of green. Aloro dropped down from the wall and stood in the middle of the gate, ready to challenge this foe. Fearless he seemed but he was able to mask his emotions exceptionally well. The swarms came closer and Maethor pulled back the arrow on his bowstring. Tior continued to sound the alarm bell as the rest of the Matoran were pouring into the underground roadway built by the Onu-Matoran. It was not created for mass exodus though and the going was slow. Portions of the tunnel were caved in and had to be cleared away again. Many of the Matoran knew that their time was coming. A group of Ko-Koronan archers marched up the stairs to the wall, fitted arrows onto their bowstrings and prepared to fire. While Maethor hadn’t yet achieved the rank of Captain of the Guard, he at least had achieved the rank of Captain of the Archers. “Ready arrows!” Maethor shouted to his archers. They all drew back their arrows and aimed for the incoming swarms. “Fire!” Maethor roared. A volley of arrows sailed from the top of the battlements and stuck into some of the creatures, freezing them in place however some arrows missed their marks and there were far more creatures than there were archers. The unfrozen creatures continued moving and plowed through the village wall as if it had been air. The foundations of the wall were destroyed and the entire defense crumbled into dust, crushing some of the archers. Most of the survivors sprinted for the underground highway but some escaped the rubble and readied another volley of arrows. Maethor was the last to emerge and the first to actually pay attention to what the swarm was doing inside of the village. The spheres had unfolded and appeared as round, insect-like creatures, blasting an acidic substance from a claw-like shield on the end of their arms. The acid ate through everything it touched. Maethor saw three of the creatures moving toward the fleeing Matoran and knew that he had to do something. Without any forethought, Maethor leapt into action. Readying an arrow midair, he fired into the first creature he saw which froze it in place. Landing, he scooped up a handful of rocks and hurled them at the next creature which turned the attention of the two creatures onto himself. He ran for a section of the wall that appeared ready to collapse at any moment. The two creatures turned into spheres and chased after him. Maethor fitted another arrow into his bow and dived through a gap in the wall, firing the arrow into the rock which caused it to collapse, crushing the creatures beneath it. Maethor had barely stood up and watched the dust clear when he heard screams of pain. He turned to see that Aloro had been pinned down and one of the creatures was pouring acid onto him; Aloro’s right hand and left foot had already been melted off and the acid was still eating through him. Maethor fitted his last arrow into his bow and fired at one of the creatures. The arrow hit its mark perfectly and froze the creature in place. This caught the attention of some others and three of them curled up and began rolling toward him. Maethor had to lead the creatures away from the escaping Matoran and the only way he knew to escape was down the side of the mountain that the village had rested on. He made a dash away from the path toward the nearly sheer side of the mountain but he lost his footing and slipped, sliding down the mountain at high speed. The creatures tumbled after him but they soon lost track of him as what little light there had been was beginning to fade and the Ko-Matoran’s color was blending into the snow drifts well. Maethor had slid far away from the creatures. The last ten feet of the mountain was a sheer ice wall. Before Maethor slid off the side and hit the solid ground, he noticed a small glowing object but when he landed, his consciousness was lost. Chapter 2: Iron Bleak weather was seen everywhere on Torbur Nui that day. In Fe-Koro, The House was in session. Unlike Ko-Koro’s system of leadership, in which the oldest Matoran was leader, Fe-Koro had a system of elections. Fe-Koro could hardly be called a village; it was so large that the rest of the residents of Torbur Nui referred to it as a city. The House was an elected group of representatives from each of the three sections of Fe-Koro with a Leader selected from the numbers of The House. The three sections were Mining, Crafting, and Shipping; each of the three sections having two representatives. Colan was one of the representatives of the Shipping Section. The majority of this House session had been spent deciding whether the tax rate would increase from 70 widgets per month to 100 widgets per month or stay the same. For the most part, the only section who really wanted the taxing to increase was the Mining section. The Mining section received all their equipment from taxes and more tax money meant more and better equipment. Even though the four representatives from the Crafting and Shipping sections could have easily carried the vote on previous sessions, this session was different because they had recently decided to give the Leader and the representative from his section the power of two votes each. The leader had also been elected from the Mining district in this session; meaning that the representatives of the Mining section had four votes to oppose the votes of the other four representatives. Colan was trying to convince the representatives of the Mining section that a higher tax rate would adversely affect all of Torbur Nui. The Leader, Krila, refused every word from Colan’s mouth. Despite his generally stubborn nature, Colan was ready to give up, as was almost everyone else. A move to adjourn until the next morning, even though noon had not yet been reached, was seconded by all. Colan left the building where The House met feeling, somewhat refreshed by the hot air outside. The heat didn’t bother him much as he had dwelt in it for as long as he could remember. He started on his journey back to his home in the Shipping section. It would only take an hour by Ussal carriage and the carriage ride would cost him 15 widgets. He reluctantly handed the money to the driver and proceeded to lie down to sleep in the back of the carriage. He had only been asleep for a few seconds when screams surrounded the carriage on all sides, awakening him. Colan sat up in a panic, wondering what was going on. The driver showed only his head as he reached into a secret compartment inside the carriage and produced a rusty sword from it. “Stay here,” the driver said. Colan rolled his eyes, knowing he couldn’t just sit there helplessly. As soon as the driver left, Colan poked his head out and looked around to see what was happening. Several large figures were stomping around carrying staves almost as big as they were, and firing bolts of energy from said staves which destroyed anything they touched. Houses were reduced to piles of rubble in seconds; Matoran were being disintegrated, there one second and gone the next. Colan was at a loss for what to do, there was no way he could hold his own against these creatures but he knew he didn’t want to go down without a fight. He opened the compartment the driver had previously produced a sword from and saw a rusty and decaying axe. ''Better than nothing, ''he thought to himself. Grabbing it, he leaped from the carriage and rushed for the first of the creatures he saw, hacking it in the leg with as much strength as he could muster. There was hardly a scratch on the creature. It hissed at Colan and kicked him off to the side of the street. Colan was knocked unconscious from the force of the kick but the creature was preparing to fire its staff to finish the Matoran off. The purple energy surged and crackled at the tip of the creature’s staff and it would have hit Colan had the driver not jumped in the way and taken the blast in his own chest. The impact from the explosion sent Colan sliding across the ground and back toward the carriage. The sliding brought him out of unconsciousness but he was still not fully aware of what was going on. As if out of thin air, three high ranking officers of the Shipping section appeared with swords, swordplay being a hobby of theirs. They knew that in the laws of Fe-Koro, protecting the Representatives in the event of any form of threat was of utmost importance. Despite their desires to flee, the officers held their ground, forming a semicircle around Colan, the circle completed by the rear end of the carriage. The creature, deprived of its desired kill, turned its rage toward the officers. Once again he charged the end of his staff, the purple energy surged greater this time. The ground seemed to burst into tiny explosions under his feet as he stomped, showing the magnitude of his power; the Matoran could see the power seething through this creature. With an almost blinding flash of light, the burst of energy was fired. It hit one of the officers square in the chest, reducing him to no more than a pile of ash and rubble. The other two officers screamed in horror and soon, they too were disintegrated. After the three officers were killed, Colan seemed to finally regain his senses. Springing to his feet, he ran to the front of the carriage and climbed inside, searching for anything that might help him to stop the creatures. ''This driver sure carries a lot of junk, ''he thought as he rummaged. He could hear the footsteps of the creature getting louder with each step. Soon he could hear the crackling of energy from the creature’s staff. ''He’s going to destroy the carriage! ''Colan thought and continued to search through all the flotsam and jetsam in the back of the carriage. In the heat of the moment, he saw a small object glowing orange. It mesmerized him and it seemed as though time was slowed for a few moments. Colan moved a few bits of scrap from the top of it when the object was revealed to be a stone, not more than six inches in length. It had a small insignia imprinted on the surface; the symbol of Fe-Koro. “What in the--?” But Colan didn’t have time to finish his thought as a screeching hiss from the creature outside the carriage brought him out of his trance. He saw a small knife and grabbed it, leaping once again from the carriage only moments before the creature loosed the energy in his staff, sending the carriage into a heap of smoke and flame. Colan ran as fast as his legs could carry him, where he was going he did not know, but it was the first time he had felt compelled to leave a particularly bad situation. He ran away from Fe-Koro for hours before he finally became exhausted and fell, slipping into unconsciousness, very close to the time Maethor had fallen into his own unconsciousness.